


The Sweet Life

by Macdragon



Category: Swordspoint Series - Ellen Kushner
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-11
Updated: 2012-11-11
Packaged: 2017-11-18 09:55:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/559698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Macdragon/pseuds/Macdragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alec and Richard on Kyros.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sweet Life

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this more than a year ago (at least). I figured it was about time I start posting these on AO3.

"He didn’t want to hurt anyone, not even himself, anymore. Not here. Not on an island where honey ran sweet in the comb, where the bees sang one kind of song in sweet-smelling thyme, and the sea sang another against black rocks below the white house they made together...  
-From "The Man With the Knives"

Hide me from day's garish eye,  
While the bee with honied thigh,  
That at her flower work doth sing,  
And the waters murmuring  
With such consort as they keep,  
Entice the dewy - feathered sleep.  
-John Milton

*** 

"I can see colors, some," Richard had said when they first arrived on Kyros. And he did--smudges of blue ocean and green leaves always on the sidelines of his vision; the occasional multicolored flash of a bird flying above, the quickness making him reach for his sword. Alec would have given the colors names--azure, emerald, scarlet--but Richard thought they spoke for themselves. 

As they learned to know the place, to love it, they found that the colors weren't the only beautiful thing. They would lie on the verandah together, knowing that no one would see them, and listen. First, there was the ever present roar of the ocean, and the sea breeze, sometimes soothing, sometimes roaring if a storm was about to hit. 

Woven in with that was the birdsong. Richard couldn't see them, but he could soon separate out the different calls. Some of them were lovely, like music. Others sounded more like screams and catcalls, and those almost reminded him of Riverside. The biggest surprise was the talking bird, who had taken to perching on the railing and letting out a half-croaked, half-drawled "Really?" at inopportune moments. 

Then, if they listened especially closely, there were the bees. The hum was like nothing else Richard had ever heard. Soft, so that you had to strain to hear it. Overpowering, always there, underneath every other sound on the island. Constant.

"Good thing they're working so hard, so we don't have to," Alec said. 

*** 

When he put his hand down, Richard hadn't expected to feel a small but intense pain under his index finger. Instinct had him putting his hand to his sword before he realized what had happened. 

"You seem to have squashed one of our bees," Alec pointed out dryly. 

Richard lifted his hand up over his head, trying to get a view from below. His finger throbbed, and it felt like there was heat expanding from that small point all the way up and down his arm. It seemed as though his finger had instantly expanded to three times its size, and as he couldn't see it very well, there was nothing to disprove this fact. Alec's footsteps moved across the porch towards him. He felt Alec's hand on his wrist, and before he could protest, Alec's nail scraping across his finger. Richard swore under his breath. 

"I was taking the stinger out." Alec's voice was sympathetic, but faintly amused. "Look at you, brought down by such a small sword." 

Richard reached for Alec with his good hand. "I think I need you to kiss it all better." 

*** 

By anyone's standards, Riverside is not known for its appealing smells. For that matter, neither were Richard's quarters, considering that they were located in the heart of Riverside. Highcombe had the scent of pine about it, but that wasn't until much later. Now the two men who fell in love with the aroma of sweaty humanity and dirty streets outside their window are surrounded by nature's endless perfume. 

Alec looked up the names of some of the flowers in his book, but the Kyros manuscript was not renowned for its reliability. The only one they could be certain of was the thyme, which grew in abundance everywhere. The warm, sweet smell of thyme hung over every part of the island. Alec said that the scent was identified as similar to "coconut," which only led to further confusion about how a brown, hairy fruit that neither of them had ever seen before could smell the same as a flower. 

Frustrated by the lack of good information in the book, Alec took it upon himself to study the plants. When they weren't occupied with each other, Alec could be found bent over a magnifying glass, cutting up the thyme and peering at it. The scent had been strong as it was, but now that the flowers were being dissected within the house, it was overwhelming. 

"The leaves have silvery little hairs all over them," Alec murmured, half to himself, half to Richard. 

"Fascinating," Richard said levelly. He had just finished practicing, and the scent of his own sweat mingled with the sweet flowers. He moved over to Alec, taking his hand. He lifted it to his lips. The smell of thyme on his fingers was so strong he could almost taste it. "I think the thyme's part of you, now." 

"Yes," Alec said thoughtfully. "I think it is." 

*** 

When he kisses Alec, the taste of honey still lingers on their lips. 

This is the sweet life.


End file.
